PARADISE LOST BOOK I : Welcome to Hell

1) This epic begins “in media res,” much like Homer and Virgil’s masterpieces. What great events and cosmos-shaking conflicts have already occurred or are happening as the narrative begins? How do these unspoken background elements frame the discourse in Book I?

2) The first book is densely packed with speeches made by the main character, Satan. What might this tell us about the importance of language and specifically rhetoric for Milton’s retelling of the Creation and Fall? Should the reader take these speeches at face value, or does the character (ethos) of the speaker impact how we listen to these words?

3) In a classic plot analysis, the beginning of a story should present the protagonist with a problem the resolution of which occupies the main action of the narrative. How does Milton turn this classic story structure on its head, giving us a topsy-turvy and distorted version of what we expect?

4) Does Book 1 exacerbate or alleviate Andrew Marvel’s concern that an imaginative epic reteling of the Genesis narrative would bring Scripture to ruin and reduce it to mere fable? In other words, is this a legitimate subject matter for the poet’s art?